Notebook: Labonte will drive for JTG/Daugherty in 2011
Bobby Labonte’s concerns about an uncertain future in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing have been settled.
JTG/Daugherty Racing, which fields Toyotas in partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing, will put Labonte behind the wheel of its No. 47 Camry for a full 36-race Cup schedule next season, the team announced Wednesday.
Labonte, 46, the 2000 Cup champion, made his 600th consecutive start in the series and his 602nd overall in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he finished 31st in James Finch’s No. 09 Chevrolet after sustaining damage in a wreck on the first lap.
Labonte started the season with TRG Motorsports, drove for Robby Gordon at New Hampshire and has spent the past three races in Finch’s car. Labonte will return to TRG’s No. 71 Chevrolet for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.
At JTG/Daugherty, Labonte will fill a void left by Marcos Ambrose, who on Tuesday announced his departure from the organization at the end of the season. Ambrose is the leading candidate to fill one of the empty seats at Richard Petty Motorsports, according to sources, though the driver denied he has already reached an agreement with RPM.
“JTG/Daugherty Racing is a solid race team that has come close to winning races with Marcos Ambrose, and I’m looking forward to developing our new partnership in 2011,” Labonte said.
“The team is thriving, and their technical alliance with MWR is intact. It’s great to have next year already set in stone so when this season ends we can begin focusing on next year right away.”
Carlson new president at Hendrick
Marshall Carlson will assume the duties of president and chief operating officer of Hendrick Motorsports, team owner Rick Hendrick announced Wednesday. Carlson, 37, was named executive vice president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports in 2005.
The office of president has been vacant since the death John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick’s brother, in the crash of a Hendrick plane en route to Martinsville in October 2004. Carlson is Rick Hendrick’s son-in-law.
“Marshall has the ability to plug into every aspect of our industry, from competition to marketing, at an extremely high level,” Hendrick said. “He’s versatile from a business perspective, and there’s a high degree of respect for him throughout the organization because of the way he treats people.”
Roush update
Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition following a plane accident Tuesday night at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. Roush is under observation for facial injuries sustained in the accident, Roush Fenway Racing said Wednesday.
His passenger, Brenda Stricklin, was treated at a local hospital and released Wednesday afternoon.
New spotter for Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon will have a new spotter this week at Pocono, after the hiring of Jeff Dickerson, who split with driver Kyle Busch earlier this month after an association that dates to Busch’s days at Hendrick Motorsports.
Dickerson replaces Shannon McGlamery, who has spotted for Gordon since 2007.
Owners meet at HMS
NASCAR is concerned about the state of stock car racing, and so are team owners, as evidenced by a town hall-style meeting Tuesday at Hendrick Motorsports involving at least 10 teams.
Team owners and representatives met at HMS to discuss how to improve the industry without raising costs, according to The Associated Press. NASCAR was aware of the meeting, the AP reported.
Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Lenox 301
This weekend’s Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway marks the first race of the Sprint Cup Series’ Race to the Chase, a ten-race dash to set the field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup at the end of the year. Right now, eight drivers are within 161 points (the maximum swing between first and last in a race) of 12th-place Carl Edwards, making the next ten races crucially important for those bubble drivers.
Loudon is a unique track to Sprint Cup, in that it is reminiscent of Martinsville on steroids. It’s a mile long, completely flat, and few drivers can maintain top ten average finishes at the track. Even the best Loudon drivers only crack the top ten about half the time.
So which drivers are good bets at the sport’s most northern track?
My pick for the weekend is Jeff Gordon. In 30 starts, he has an average finish of 11.4, with 13 top five results. Though he hasn’t won at the track since 1998, he has four finishes of third or better in the last seven Loudon races and led 64 laps in this event last year. He’ll be looking for a long overdue first win of the season.
My dark horse for the weekend is Martin Truex Jr., racing once again at his home track, per se. The New Jersey native finished in the top ten each time he ran at Loudon in 2007 and 2008, with last year’s poor finishes an aberration. It was his big wins at Loudon in the K&N East Series that actually put him in position to step up to the big time in the first place. Truex will also be looking to make up for a race ruined by Gordon last weekend.
Three more, as per usual:
Denny Hamlin has the best average finish of a driver with a significant amount of starts at Loudon. In eight races, he’s put up a 7.5 average, with one win and six top fives. More impressive, Hamlin has never failed to complete a lap at the track, nor has he ever finished worse than 15th.
Any longtime fan of the sport, or of this track, knows that Jeff Burton once owned Loudon like no other driver could ever imagine. From 1997 to 2000, Burton won a race every year, with his 300-out-of-300 laps led in the fall of 2000 his masterpiece at the track. Sure, Burton hasn’t won there since, but he’s continued to put up solid runs.
Finally, let’s go way out in left field and give Bobby Labonte a little name recognition. He’s just left TRG Motorsports and will attempt to run the full race in Robby Gordon’s unsponsored No. 7 car. He actually led in both Loudon races last year, and although his finishes haven’t shown it as of late, he was once a shoo-in for top finishes every race. His feedback on the car will help Gordon’s team move forward as they attempt to gain sponsorship for the rest of the season.
Fantasy Pick’Em: 2010 Shelby American
Two races down, 34 to go as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for this year’s Shelby American. Kyle Busch will attempt to defend his 2009 race win after two consecutive 14th place finishes to start the year.
Jimmie Johnson won three consecutive Vegas races from 2005-07, and won last week in California. He was the best of my five suggestions last week. My lead pick, Matt Kenseth, had a seventh-place run, while my dark horse, David Ragan, was 23rd. Of my other picks, Busch was 14th, and polesitter Jamie McMurray wound up 17th. All in all, it was a much better day than Daytona, and everybody was in the top 25, so the day wasn’t a disaster.
I know it’s an easy pick, but can you fault me for taking Johnson this weekend? It somehow feels okay to me because of his off and on nature at Vegas. In eight starts at the track, he has three wins, but only one other top-10. The past two years he hasn’t finished in the top 20, although he led the most laps in last year’s event before a pit road mistake took him off the lead lap.
It’s hard to come up with a true dark horse for Vegas. The top drivers in the series usually do well, and the lesser teams don’t, according to the record books. But Bobby Labonte may be as close as it gets. He was fifth last year for the Hall of Fame Racing team that no longer runs, and he may be able to pull some similar magic for TRG Motorsports this weekend. He’s got a decent Vegas record, with an average finish of 15.7 in 12 starts, two poles, and five top-10s, with four of those finishes fifth or better.
The other three drivers I’m picking, as per tradition:
Jeff Burton has the best average finish of anybody at Vegas, and even the fact that he’s started every race at the track hasn’t weighed that down. He’s the only driver with an average finish in the single digits (9.8), and he won this race in 1999 and 2000. Save a disaster in 2001, he’s never finished worse than 17th.
Kyle Busch runs at a torrid pace at his home track. His average start of 7.7 is only second to brother Kurt, at least for drivers with multiple Vegas starts, but Rowdy is significantly better than his big brother in average finish, by more than nine places. As I’ve already mentioned, he won this race last year. Since joining Sprint Cup full-time, his worst Vegas finish is 11th. Talk about stepping up for the home crowd.
Finally, Denny Hamlin completes my horrible cop-out of picking the drivers with the top four average finishes at Vegas. I know, I know. But Hamlin is outside the top 20 in points – I feel like I should get some leeway there. He also hasn’t led any laps at Vegas in his career, which would make a victory somewhat of an upset, right? He qualifies mid-pack (average start 23.5), but has an average finish of 11.0, the biggest positive difference for any active driver, meaning if he wins, he’ll have earned it by passing a lot of cars and maintaining the lead.
NASCAR tweeks Bud Shootout qualifying criteria; Dale Jr will be eligible
For the second consecutive year in a row, NASCAR has changed the way drivers will become eligible for the first technical race of the season, the Budweiser Shootout.
Starting with the upcoming shootout, the chase field from the previous season, former NASCAR champions, former Budweiser Shootout race winners, former winners of the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400, and the previous year’s Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner will be eligible for entry. A driver also has to have competed in a Sprint Cup Series events within the last two years to enter.
“As NASCAR evolves, we tailor the Budweiser Shootout’s qualifying criteria to provide fans with a lineup that showcases NASCAR’s best drivers on the high banks of Daytona,” Daytona International Speedway President Robin Braig said. “The new criteria put a premium on race winners at NASCAR’s most storied track – Daytona International Speedway – and we’re looking forward to kicking off the new season with an electric night of racing.”
The format of the race will remain the same as last year.
Drivers that are now eligible for the shootout are John Andretti, Greg Biffle, Geoff Bodine, Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Derrike Cope, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Joey Logano, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers and Michael Waltrip.
A Tale of Two Race Teams: Bass Pro Shops’ Dilemma
The sponsors of NASCAR teams are obligated to pay the bills in order to plaster their logos on the cars. They’re obligated to stick with a team through the length of their contract, for better or worse, and make the best of what the race team can provide them. But that doesn’t mean that when the situation is less than stellar and the contract is approaching its final year, the sponsor isn’t going to look for a quick out; they’ve also got an obligation to look for the greatest return on their investment.
Bass Pro Shops has been a major primary sponsor of a car in one of NASCAR’s top two series since 2003, when they debuted on the hood of Hank Parker Jr.’s Chance 2 Motorsports Chevrolet at a then-Busch Series race in Atlanta. They stuck with that team for the next two seasons, when they won championships with driver Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Bono Manion.
In 2006, the whole team moved up to the Cup series, and they made the Chase in 2007, with Truex taking his maiden Cup win at Dover. But in 2008 and 2009, the wheels started to fall off: the team failed to make the Chase again in 2008, it was forced to merge with Chip Ganassi’s team in the offseason, and right now is mired at 24th in the standings, while teammate Juan Montoya challenges for victories week in and week out. In response, Bass Pro Shops has scaled back its sponsorship of the car, with a presumptive 26 races this season and only 20 next year.
Right now, that car is vacant for the 2010 season, with Truex heading to Michael Waltrip Racing to replace its namesake in their flagship car. New owner Ganassi wants to put Jamie McMurray in the car, out of a combination of history (McMurray never finished worse than 13th in points in three years spent with Ganassi) and “best available”; the sponsor isn’t so sure that McMurray fits their image.
In a FoxSports.com article, Lee Spencer mounts a weak defense for McMurray, saying that last week’s winner “will go above and beyond for his sponsors whether it’s Bass Pro or anyone else.” Duh. Name me one successful driver this side of Stroker Ace who hasn’t.
Former champion Bobby Labonte is available to Ganassi, and he fits the sponsor’s image much better, but two things stand in the way of that marriage: TRG Motorsports is working to keep him on board with their team, and Labonte is having the worst season of his illustrious career, lingering at 30th in points.
The other available drivers, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, are other Ganassi castoffs who never did anywhere near as much with that team in the past (or with other teams as of late) as McMurray did.
The other, more desirable option that Bass Pro Shops has is to find a way out of their contract with Ganassi and head to Stewart-Haas Racing, where they would fill out the gaps in the schedule on Ryan Newman’s car left by the U.S. Army. It’s been an open secret for a while that the match makes a lot of sense; the sponsor occupies a B-pillar spot on owner Tony Stewart’s car, they’ve had an association with him for years, and Stewart-Haas is a step up from Ganassi in almost every way.
Back in April, Hermie Sadler reported on SPEED that there is no “out” in Bass Pro Shops’ contract for the 2010 season, just a day after Fox Sports posted rumors of the sponsor switching teams due to a performance clause. But sometimes, ripping up a contract makes more sense for both sides.
Ganassi, through Target as well as his team’s other partners, could probably find enough sponsorship to field McMurray for the full season if Bass Pro Shops were to be let out of its contract. Before the merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Ganassi had a commitment from Target that would have allowed him to run two full-time cars in 2009. This year, Target and its partners combined to sponsor 18 races for Truex and Aric Almirola, besides the full schedule for Montoya (who had other Target partners on his car for four races).
Running a two-car Target program in Sprint Cup could work similarly to Ganassi’s IndyCar Series program with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. This year, Dixon drove a Target car all season, while Franchitti’s car carried a multiplicity of sponsors who marketed through Target for the majority of the year.
It’s hard to convince an existing sponsor to expand its support in this economy, but given Target’s 20 years with Ganassi, McMurray’s solid history with the team, and the fact that his personality fits Target’s marketing programs much better than those of a hunting outlet, it seems only plausible. That would then free up Bass Pro Shops to fill out Newman’s schedule, strengthening Stewart’s new team even further.
Of course, this only works out as well as it does when you keep the monetary figures away – I don’t know that a buyout would be worth it for either Ganassi or Bass Pro Shops, or that Target would really be willing to expand its Sprint Cup participation. But for the sponsors, being involved in racing requires a return on the money they’ve invested. The way that things stand right now, everybody stands to be more successful if things get switched around.
Newman edges Gordon for Martinsville pole
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — “Rocket Man” Ryan Newman is back, and Jimmie Johnson’s pursuers have a glimmer of hope after Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway.
A prodigious qualifier who won 28 poles during a three-year stretch from 2003-2005, Newman edged Jeff Gordon for the top starting spot for Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at the .526-mile paper-clip-shaped short track.
The pole is Newman’s second of the season, his third at Martinsville and the 45th of his career — tied with Buck Baker for 11th on the all-time list — but it took a lap at 96.795 mph to win the top position from Gordon, who posted 96.519 mph early in the session.
Martin Truex Jr. (96.509 mph) qualified third, followed by Mark Martin (96.504 mph) and David Reutimann (96.117 mph). Casey Mears, Joey Logano, Bobby Labonte, Reed Sorenson and Kevin Harvick will start from positions six through 10, respectively.
Newman, Gordon and Martin are the only three Chase drivers who qualified in the top 12. Series leader Jimmie Johnson, who has won five of the last six races at Martinsville, will start 15th. Johnson leads second-place Martin by 90 points and third-place Gordon by 135 with five races left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Newman acknowledged that Sunday’s race could shake up the series standings but cautioned not to read too much into other Chase drivers’ qualifying results, because rain early in the day shortened Friday’s practice session.
“I think there’s potential of that (a shake-up) — short-track racing has that potential,” Newman said. “But I think, without a doubt, Jimmie and Tony (Stewart, who qualified 13th) and a few other guys will be right back up there — they seem to always be (back up front) in very little time.
“I think it’s a little different situation today (Friday). I know the 48 (Johnson) spent a lot of time in race trim and very little time qualifying trim, so those factors weigh into it, because of the small rain delay that we had and the abbreviated practice session.”
Johnson, who is trying to win an unprecedented fourth straight Cup championship, said he thought he ran two laps good enough to win the pole and was shocked to learn how slow his car had been.
“It’s what we’ve been saying all along — this thing isn’t over,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to go out there and earn it.”
Josh Wise was the only driver who failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
Silly Season Gets Sillier: TRG To Dodge With Labonte?
Autoweek reports today that fledgling NASCAR Sprint Cup team The Racer’s Group and floundering manufacturer Dodge are interested in hooking up for the 2010 season.
The combination would be a marriage of two backmarkers in the series looking to move on to better things after markedly different 2009 campaigns.
Dodge has two contenders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup in Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne, but neither appears a threat to win the championship. Worse for the manufacturer, Kahne and his Richard Petty Motorsports team will join the Ford camp in 2010, although whether their proposed merger with Yates Racing goes through remains to be seen.
TRG, however, has exceeded their expectations for the season. Owner Kevin Buckler only created the team a few weeks before the season, as one of many proposed start-and-park outfits popping up in a poor economy. Expectations were decidedly low, despite Buckler purchasing former Richard Childress Racing equipment.
Despite missing the Daytona 500 with driver Mike Wallace, the team has qualified for every race since while operating on a shoestring budget. Lead driver David Gilliland finished 14th at Las Vegas for the team’s best result of the year, and perseverance has landed the team 37th in owners’ points. With the possibility of at least two teams eliminated next year due to NASCAR’s budget cap, the team may find itself 35th in owners’ points come Daytona in 2010, locking it into the first five races of the year.
The team has also benefited from the presence of Bobby Labonte in a handful of races. When Labonte was forced from his ride with Hall of Fame Racing in select events due to sponsorship issues, TRG picked him up to fill the ride.
Hall of Fame Racing began a partnership with Yates Racing at the beginning of this season, but it’s unlikely to carry over into 2010. Not only that, the Ask.com sponsorship that has adorned that car for much of the season appears more tied to past champion Labonte than the struggling race team, and it seems unlikely that Labonte would want to return to HoF, especially with the ride being generally uncompetitive all year.
Rumors have thus been swirling that Labonte could go to TRG for the full 2010 season, bringing the Ask.com sponsorship with him. Thanks to Labonte’s past champion’s provisional, that team would then be guaranteed into at least the first 11 races of next season—surely an attractive prospect to all parties.
The marriage of TRG and Dodge works for both sides by establishing the manufacturer with a distinct entity to rank second in the hierarchy behind Penske Racing. Even though it would only add one car for the foreseeable future, the prospect of more than three Dodges in the field has to be attractive to the company.
Buckler could also use the manufacturer support to help him attain his goal of building a successful stock car team to go along with his strong road racing operation. Keep in mind that Dodge sponsored most of the RPM cars in some associate capacity this season, and any of that free money contained within Dodge’s budget could go towards establishing the TRG team.
Buckler and Roger Penske even have manufacturer connections in sports car racing – both run Porsches in the Rolex Sports Car Series (Buckler in the GT class, Penske in the Daytona Prototypes).
Bringing in Labonte may simply be a step sideways for the former champion, but it would certainly help solidify The Racer’s Group as a legitimate NASCAR team for the future. With the right combination of an experienced driver, a knowledgeable crew chief, and solid funding, TRG should climb up the standings in 2010.
The question right now is, will everything fall into place?
45 cars on Sprint Cup Series entry list for California
NASCAR’s preliminary entry list shows 45 entries for this weekend’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway which is race number 30 of 36 on the Sprint Cup Series schedule and is the fourth chase race.
In all, there are seven Fords, nine Dodges, 14 Toyota and 15 Chevrolets.
Ten drivers that have entered the race have won a race at Auto Club Speedway before. Those drivers are Carl Edwards (spring-2008), Elliott Sadler (fall-2004), Greg Biffle (spring-2005), Jeff Gordon (spring-1997, spring-1999, spring-2004) , Jimmie Johnson (spring-2002, fall-2007, fall-2008), Kasey Kahne (fall-2006), Kurt Busch (spring-2003), Kyle Busch (fall-2005), Mark Martin (spring-1998) and Matt Kenseth (spring-2006, spring-2007, spring-2009).
Ten drivers will have to qualify into the race based on their speed during Friday afternoon’s qualifying session. Those drivers are Dave Blaney, David Gilliland, Joe Nemechek, Kevin Hamlin, Mike Bliss, Max Papis, Michael McDowell, Mike Wallace, Regan Smith and Scott Speed.
The weekend begins with a practice session Friday at 4 p.m. ET and will be televised live on SPEED. Qualifying will also take place Friday, beginning at 6:40 p.m. ET and will also be televised live on SPEED.
Saturday holds two Sprint Cup Series practice sessions. The first of the day and second of the weekend begins 4 p.m. ET. The second practice of the day and final of the weekend will follow at 2:45 p.m. ET. Television coverage of the final practice will be shown on tape-delay and will begin at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
The green flag is expected to wave at approximatley 3:31 p.m. ET.
SBLI insurance becomes associate sponsor for Labonte at New Hampshire
TRG Motorsports announced today that Savings Bank Life Insurance (SBLI) will become an associate sponsor for the No. 71 Chevrolet driven by former series champion Bobby Labonte this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“We are going to give SBLI their first run in NASCAR,” team principal Kevin Buckler said. “Bobby has a good record at the track and we are looking forward to a strong weekend. The insurance business is every bit as competitive as what we do on the track. We are looking forward to helping SBLI get acquainted with NASCAR Sprint Cup racing and all of the marketing power that comes with their association with TRG Motorsports.”
SBLI, based in Massachusetts, was established in 1901 and has more then 2 billion dollars in assets across 32 states.
Labonte has an average finish of 15.4 in 29 starts at New Hampshire.
Labonte won’t sit out Atlanta after all
One team’s PR problem is another’s PR opportunity.
For Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bobby Labonte is out of his Sprint Cup ride at Yates Racing, which operates the No. 96 Ford for Hall of Fame Racing, but that doesn’t mean Labonte will miss the event at Atlanta, where the 2000 Cup champion has collected six of his 21 victories.
TRG Motorsports offered Labonte a ride in the No. 71 Chevrolet, and NASCAR’s updated entry list Thursday indicates Labonte is replacing David Gilliland in the car. Yates Racing announced Monday that Labonte and Erik Darnell would share the No. 96 car for the rest of the year, with Darnell competing in seven of the final 12 races, including Sunday at Atlanta, where he’ll make his Cup debut.
The move by TRG will keep Labonte’s streak of consecutive starts in the Cup series alive. Labonte’s streak stands at 568 races, eighth on the all-time list; only Jeff Gordon (569 starts) has a longer active streak.
Labonte will drive for TRG in the seven events he will miss for Yates—at Atlanta, New Hampshire, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead—with Gilliland running in the remaining five. Labonte’s car at Yates was unsponsored for those seven events, whereas Darnell was able to bring sponsorship from Academy Sports & Outdoors and Northern Tools, the latter of which sponsors Darnell’s Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series efforts at Roush Fenway Racing.
Labonte will not have access to the past champion’s provisional for the Atlanta race, given that his move to the No. 71 car took place after the entry deadline. The past champion’s provisional accrues to the car owner, only if the driver is entered “for that owner in that car” before the entry deadline, according to NASCAR’s rulebook. Labonte will have to qualify on speed Saturday.
Darnell to enter seven events in No. 96, Labonte moves to Hall of Fame Racing
Yates Racing PR
CONCORD, N.C. (August 31, 2009) – Max Jones, co-owner of Yates Racing, announced today that former NASCAR Camping World Series Rookie-of–the-Year and current NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, Erik Darnell will be behind the wheel of the No. 96 entry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for seven races this season.
Darnell will make his Sprint Cup Series debut Labor Day weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the No. 96 Academy Sports & Outdoors Ford Fusion. He also is slated to pilot the No. 96 at Loudon, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.
Darnell will carry the familiar colors of Northern Tool + Equipment for the Loudon and Kansas races. Academy Sports & Outdoors will be Darnell’s primary sponsor at Atlanta, Talladega and Texas.
“Racing in the Cup Series is every driver’s goal. The Cup Series is where the best of the best compete and I am looking forward to racing against those guys,” said Darnell. “I’m excited that Northern Tool + Equipment will be able to make the jump with me and that Academy Sports & Outdoors has agreed to sponsor me as well. I am confident that this team can give both of these great sponsors’ good runs in these upcoming races.”
Bobby Labonte will continue to race the No. 96 Ford Fusion under the Hall of Fame Racing banner with Ask.com and DLP as his primary sponsors at Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville.
“This is a move that will be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time,” said Bobby Labonte. “Of course, I’m disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I’m behind the wheel for Ask.com, DLP and Hall of Fame Racing.”
“Yates Racing and Hall of Fame have a one-year agreement that committed Yates Racing to field Bobby Labonte in the races where Ask.com and DLP were the primary sponsors. Not all the Sprint Cup races were sponsored and Yates Racing took the sole risk for finding sponsors for those races,” Jones. “We were left with a handful of races that have gone unsponsored to this point. Northern Tool has been Erik’s primary sponsor in both the Nationwide and Truck Series, and they were willing to help Erik and Yates Racing this year. We believe Erik is an extremely talented driver, ready for a shot at racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. We are looking forward to seeing Erik progress as a driver and hopefully become a full-time driver in the Cup Series.”
Darnell ran three full NASCAR Camping World Series seasons and scored three poles, two wins, 16 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes. He won Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 2005. In the Nationwide Series, Darnell has just 11 starts, but so far has achieved one pole, two top-five and five top-10 finishes – he has led 20 laps.
Chart of the week: Winning percentage
Kyle Busch’s victory in last Saturday’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol was his 16th in 174 Cup starts, which moved him ahead of Carl Edwards in winning percentage. As the chart shows, Jimmie Johnson has the best Cup winning percentage among active drivers (eighth overall), followed closely by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. The chart is comprised only of drivers with at least 100 Cup starts.
| Rk. | Overall Rank | Drivers | Wins | Races | Win. pct. |
| 1. | 8 | Jimmie Johnson | 43 | 279 | 15.41 |
| 2. | 10 | Jeff Gordon | 82 | 569 | 14.41 |
| 3. | 24 | Tony Stewart | 36 | 380 | 9.47 |
| 4. | 26 | Kyle Busch | 16 | 174 | 9.20 |
| 5. | 27 | Carl Edwards | 16 | 181 | 8.84 |
| 6. | 36 | Kurt Busch | 19 | 316 | 6.01 |
| 7. | 38 | Greg Biffle | 14 | 246 | 5.69 |
| 8. | 40 | Bill Elliott | 44 | 804 | 5.47 |
| 9. | 42 | Mark Martin | 39 | 746 | 5.23 |
| 10. | 43 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 18 | 351 | 5.13 |
| 11. | 44 | Matt Kenseth | 18 | 352 | 5.11 |
| 12. | 47 | Kasey Kahne | 10 | 204 | 4.90 |
| 13. | 50 | Ryan Newman | 13 | 284 | 4.58 |
| 14. | 53 | Jeff Burton | 21 | 535 | 3.93 |
| 15. | 56 | Bobby Labonte | 21 | 570 | 3.68 |
| 16. | 57 | Denny Hamlin | 5 | 139 | 3.60 |
| 17. | 58 | Kevin Harvick | 11 | 310 | 3.55 |
| 18. | 62 | Terry Labonte | 22 | 864 | 2.55 |
| 19. | 68 | Clint Bowyer | 2 | 133 | 1.50 |
| 20. | 75 | Brian Vickers | 2 | 196 | 1.02 |
| 21. | 79 | Robby Gordon | 3 | 330 | 0.91 |
| 22. | 81 | Jamie McMurray | 2 | 246 | 0.81 |
| 23. | 83 | Elliott Sadler | 3 | 381 | 0.79 |
| 24. | 82 | Joe Nemechek | 4 | 509 | 0.79 |
| 25. | 86 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | 141 | 0.71 |
| 26. | 94 | Michael Waltrip | 4 | 747 | 0.54 |
| 27. | 95 | John Andretti | 2 | 380 | 0.53 |
| 28. | 100 | Casey Mears | 1 | 240 | 0.42 |
Jimmie Johnson, others to be honored Wednesday at White House
Jimmie Johnson, the 2008 Chase field and many other notable NASCAR stars will pay a visit to Pennsylvania Ave. on Wednesday to be honored by President Barack Obama.
Drivers scheduled to join Johnson included Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya, Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip.
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth will not be attending due to scheduling conflicts.
“NASCAR is once again honored to have its drivers recognized by the President of the United States,” Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, said. “NASCAR is rooted deep in America’s fabric and represents the best of sports and side-by-side competition.”
This visit was rescheduled after the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 was postponed August 2nd, with the race being rescheduled for the following day in which the White House visit was originally scheduled to take place.
The first time NASCAR visited the White House was in 1978. The sport has visited the White House each year since 2000.
Ask.com scores big with foray into NASCAR
Ask.com made the call last December to throw nearly all of its marketing resources into NASCAR in the first half of 2009, making it one of the rare brands to invest during the heart of the recession. Up against search-engine titans Google, Yahoo and MSN, the company’s leaders decided they had to be aggressive, harsh economic times or not.
Six months later, a new head of the company is facing a new decision: Whether to stay in the sport.
Examining the early returns, and despite the late start and a short 65-day window to conceive an activation program that launched at Daytona in February, the decision to leap into NASCAR seems to have paid off for Ask. Nielsen Online data shows Ask’s market share has grown from 1.9 percent to 2.2 percent from January to June, although Ask remains fifth in the category behind ever-dominant Google (63.2 percent), Yahoo (17.2), MSN (9.4) and AOL (3.9). Another Internet measurement company, comScore, has Ask fourth in the category.
“We’ve seen very strong results,” Ask president Scott Garell said. “It shows the activation is working.”
Ask also has seen double-digit growth among NASCAR fans in usage, according to a Brand Image Monitor study from January to March that was commissioned by the search engine. Ask’s only marketing change this year has been its entry to NASCAR as a team, league and track sponsor, and a major ad buyer on Fox and NASCAR.com.
Now halfway into the year, Oakland-based Ask is evaluating the rest of 2009 and 2010. Its deal to sponsor Bobby Labonte’s No. 96 Ford at Hall of Fame Racing and its official status deal with NASCAR are for 2009 only. Most of Ask’s sponsorship and activation spend of about $10 million, according to industry analysts, was against the first half of the year.
The deal with Hall of Fame Racing cost a little under $4 million for the primary position in 18 races, sources said. While that’s far cheaper than the $20 million or more many sponsors spend on the top-tier teams, Hall of Fame Racing offered a bargain as a bottom-rung team that has struggled to compete.
Even without the performance, Ask’s broad activation across team, league, tracks, TV and the web has made an impact. “We have every intention of being back next year,” Garell said.
A fullcourt press
Garell took over leadership of Ask Networks in May after former CEO Jim Safka left the company for personal reasons. Despite the leadership change in the midst of its first major sports marketing effort, Garell said the program hasn’t skipped a beat.
Garell was integral in the decision to leap into NASCAR, and because he was with Safka on most of the calls in December, Garell expects renewal talks to go smoothly with Ask’s partners, even though he brings a different style.
Associates describe Safka as a shoot-from-the-hip gunslinger whose energy drove Ask to develop a NASCAR plan; Garell is considered more analytical in his approach.
The good news for NASCAR is that the metrics are in its favor.
The Brand Image study shows among NASCAR fans that Ask.com usage is up 12 percent, awareness is up 43 percent and positive impressions are up 14 percent. NASCAR fans also visit Ask.com more frequently.
“They’ve had blanket coverage,” said Brett Jewkes, managing partner at Taylor, which partnered with Ask in December to help form the marketing and public relations plan.
In addition to its team and league deals, Ask developed a special NASCAR.com toolbar, spent big with Fox on the first 13 Sprint Cup races and activated at the track with its team of Ask Ambassadors. On the cause front, Ask partnered with Web Wise Kids to create an Internet safety program.
Ask, which had no previous exposure to NASCAR, wanted the national platform the sport offered for its first deep venture into a sports marketing campaign.
“We selected NASCAR because of its famously loyal fans and because we thought we could create the best search experience for the fans on the Web,” Garell said. “We were looking to appeal to audiences, not so much on a product level, but on a fan experience level.”
Safka was new to the CEO job in 2008 and it was late in the year by the time his feet were solidly on the ground and the company had decided to pursue a sports property. Safka attended NASCAR’s season finale in Homestead, Fla., on Nov. 16 with Tom Garfinkel, a co-owner of Hall of Fame Racing, which was struggling to stay in business at the time.
Ask had 65 days from the time it decided to jump into NASCAR on Dec. 12 until the Daytona 500 in February to orchestrate a program that normally takes six months to plan.
“Even much bigger brands hesitate to bite off that much at first,” Jewkes said. “But Ask came in very aggressively and took advantage of the opportunities that were there because of the economy.”
The impact has been even richer in NASCAR because so many other brands have pulled back during the recession. Ask’s league deal, team deal, track deals and media buys amount to $10 million or so, industry sources say.
In addition to the team deal at a little under $4 million, Ask has spent about $1 million on track deals, another $2 million or so on its NASCAR official status deal and NASCAR.com buy, and close to $3 million on its ad buy with Fox for the season’s first 13 races.
“The market was hungry,” said Mike Boykin, executive vice president at GMR Marketing, which has worked with Ask on strategy and activation. “Ask came in when nobody else was buying. There were opportunities to be had.”
The fully integrated program has made an impact, said one industry expert, Dave Grant, a principal and co-founder at Velocity Sports & Entertainment. He gave Ask credit for its timing but wondered about its future.
“It’s a nice first-year program, but we’ve seen a lot of nice first-year programs,” Grant said. “Can they win over the fan base and maintain that fan base over an extended period of time? That’s the question.
“They definitely win Rookie of the Year, but MVP, I’m not so sure.”
What impresses Grant is that Ask seems to have built a program that is “performance-proof.” Labonte is ranked 28th in points with one top-10 finish, but Ask’s thorough-media and at-track activation has made the performance on the track virtually meaningless.
Ask knew performance expectations would be low when it signed with Hall of Fame. In fact, the team deal was one of the last pieces to come together when it was signed on Dec. 30 at 11 p.m. Pacific.
“The performance isn’t there, but they probably didn’t spend a lot of money to be with that team, anyway,” Grant said. “Winning a race is irrelevant, which is refreshing. You can’t control the competition side. But what they’re doing is winning the hearts and minds of the fans because they see Ask out there competing.”
A total team effort
That Ask even had a program to launch in February at the Daytona 500 was something of a planning miracle. Ask’s employees and partners (Taylor, GMR) worked through the Christmas break and often deep into December and January nights to develop the company’s activation, Garell said.
The running joke in the Oakland office has become: “What’s for dinner tonight? Pretzels?” because of the occasions when they snacked on pretzels while working late into the night on the NASCAR program.
But, then again, little about Ask’s first venture into sports marketing followed standard form. Unlike many sponsors that begin with a team deal and build out — or don’t build out at all — Ask approached NASCAR nearly 180 degrees differently.
Many of the other complementary pieces — NASCAR official deal, NASCAR.com buy, track deals, Fox ad buy — were either in place or already planned by the time the team agreement was struck. Labonte still had to shoot many of the 36 15-second ad spots in January that eventually ran on Fox.
“When you talk about a fully integrated program, I think the fear is that you don’t have enough money to spend with everyone,” said Jim O’Connell, NASCAR’s vice president of corporate marketing. “You see some sponsors come in with just the team or just an official, they don’t get the results, and they leave. Ask came in and didn’t overspend with any one stakeholder.”
Knowing how small the planning window was, Ask went to Taylor first and then GMR for help navigating the space. Taylor and GMR have worked together on NASCAR programs such as Gillette and Alltel, so they were already familiar.
“I got a call on a Tuesday (Dec. 16) and by Sunday we were in Oakland,” GMR’s Boykin said. “I thought, ‘Is this real?’
“From mid-December, to turn around a fully integrated program with commercials, a huge digital presence, an extensive PR plan, employee engagement, at-track — and we didn’t even know which team, for sure — I haven’t been involved in anything close to that. Not even remotely.”
“I was enamored with their confidence, but my brain is programmed to think these things take five or six months, maybe longer,” said Taylor’s Jewkes. “It was incredible the way Ask mobilized their entire organization.”
By the time Taylor coordinated the release of the news on Jan. 14, all the pieces were in place and Ask announced the full breadth of its program, not just the team deal.
“Announcing it all in one swoop was by design,” Jewkes said. “It’s so comprehensive, we wanted everyone to know that Ask wasn’t just sponsoring a racecar. It underscores the whole strategy.”
Part of what made such a brisk turnaround conceivable was Ask’s structure, Taylor and GMR said. Safka and Garell were on most of the conference calls, so there weren’t layers of executives to navigate. Key decisions were made on the spot.
There’s also something about the fast-paced culture of a tech company that contributed to the rapid planning. In Ask’s office, results are measured daily. It’s in the company’s DNA to read and react quickly.
“It worked because their team is nimble, it worked because of Jim’s courage, it worked because there was no competition in this space from Ask’s category,” said Hall of Fame’s Garfinkel, who’s also COO of the San Diego Padres. “The timing was perfect.
“We told them that if they came in, they’d be the story. And they have been the story.”
Michael Smith is a reporter with SportsBusiness Journal.
